Gatekeepers
by CoalTreasure
Summary: AU. The M’Arrilleans are locked back up in the Deep Mines, humans are myths, only the oldest have seen them, but when a gate way opens to let humans in, how will Perim survive; since a group of humans called the Black Knights are after four 5yr olds?
1. Prologue

**_A/N: Stupid bunnies!! Please imagine the Creatures in the beginning of season 2, not near the end, but beginning._**

**Gatekeepers Prologue**

_Many years ago…._

"…Then the human took a swing, but the fellow missed me and hit himself in the head!" A deep voice rumbled in laughter with his audience. The speaker, Najarin, was a blue skinned humanoid that was richly dressed in fine garments. His audience varied from little children to large adults.

"When he came to, I was nowhere to be seen. He went away, rubbing his head, not noticing that I was in the tree above him. Thus, proving that humans are not capable of finishing off an opponent," Najarin continued, ending his story. Applause surrounded him, then a little Creature in the front row called out, "Can we have another human tale? _PLEEEEASSSSE?" _

"Another human tale, Intress?" Najarin said with amusement at the little tiger Creature, who nodded her head along with a little green skinned boy with spiky black hair. "Oh, all right."

Cheers rang up as Najarin chose his story. "Let's see, ah! Why Perim no longer has the Lights that Reach the Ground is a good one. Back when there were no tribes, the sky would sometimes light up, turning itself into many wonderful and wondrous colors. Many accounts of Creatures witnessing it leave them awestruck at its beauty. But what struck them the most was the fact was that the times that they saw the lights, the lights try to touch the earth, and noises that are rhythmic and vocal filled the air. But when the humans left, the Lights reached no more. The air became silent, and the beauty ran away. But sometimes, in the middle of the night, when the wind blows violently, Creatures can sometimes hear the vocals of the singers that made the Lights that Reach the Ground."

Applause rose up and many Overworld Creatures made their leave. Intress and her green skinned friend gave Najarin hugs.

"Thank you for the stories, Najarin," the green skinned one said.

"You're welcome, Maxxor," Najarin replied warmly. The two little ones left, and soon after everyone said good-bye, Najarin was alone.

"One must wonder," he muttered to himself, staring into the sky, "what made the humans leave?"

* * *

_5 Years from the Present_

The M'Arrillians were defeated and locked back up in the Deep Mines. Double guards were placed to make sure that the doors will never be opened again. Now the tribes were reunited, and a large holiday was established to mark the day the tribes became one to fight a common enemy.

Najarin smiled as he watched Maxxor and Intress, now mates, and Chaor and his mate, Takinom, moved with the joyous music. Danians, Mipeadians, Underworlders, and Overworlders alike moved in time to the beat. Those who were brainwashed were back to normal, and joined in on the dancing. Some warriors, like Tangath Toborn, were too injured to dance, but made their joy known by clapping to the beat.

Najarin looked to the sky, still smiling, but the joyous atmosphere that surrounded him evaporated. There, up in the sky, were the Lights that Reach the Ground. He could even hear the vocals that accompanied them. They were joyful, solemn, yet with a tinge of mischief.

"Najarin!" A shout brought him out of his wonderings, and he turned to see Tiaane right next to him. "Are you all right?"

Najarin looked back to the sky and was relieved to see the Lights gone. "Yes, Tiaane. I'm fine."

Tiaane smiled. "Good. Thought that you were mesmerized by something."

He leaned in closer and whispered, "Watch out for the little ones; they want to hear of the humans again."

Najarin chuckled and said, "Well, I can't disappoint them, now can I?"

* * *

_Present_

Five years have passed since the M'Arrillians were locked up, and Najarin brushed the Lights that Reach the Ground as a trick in the night. After all, he was getting old, wasn't he? Life proved him wrong.

Najarin stared at Blazier, a neutral expression on his as he heard Blaizer's report. "Where did you see these creatures? Please, describe them as well."

"In the Forest of Life, they looked like Maxxor, but their skin tones ranged from pale white to dark brown," Blazier replied. Najarin's horror became apparent on his face and he slumped low in his seat, placing a hand to his forehead. "Najarin?"

"They returned," he simply said. "The _humans_ have _returned_."

_**A/N: Please read and review!! It keeps me going!!**_


	2. Chapter 1

_**A/N: I got some ideas from books I've been reading, so yeah. Just pointing that out. I don't own Chaotic, and Tom, Kaz, Peyton, and Sarah seem a little OOC in this because they're really little.**_

Gatekeepers Ch. 1

"Wow!!" A little boy looked in wonder at the tall and colorful trees that many said covered the region of the Forest of Life. He was about five years old, with short jet black hair, big blue eyes, and slightly tanned skin. He was traveling with a medium-sized group of humans, horses, dogs, and his best friends, along with Gatekeepers, humans that can open anything and quite valuable.

"Look at that tree!" He pointed to a lone, thick tree with barely any leaves on it in the middle of a clearing.

"Can I climb it? Please, Grandmother, _please_?" He asked an adult with long power white hair, tanned skin, and brown eyes, looking up at her on her horse, his eyes shining. She wasn't his grandmother, but he, like everyone else in the group, called her that. Unbeknownst to him, there was a large nest at the top of the tree, and the owner of said nest did not know of the group. Thankfully for both parties, the woman chuckled and replied, "No, Tom. We need to stay out of clearings, all right? We can't let the Knights catch us."

Tom nodded his head, shuddering at the memory of seeing a Black Knight. The Knight had been dressed in all black thick armor, making it hard to finish him with anything. It took over half of a dozen warriors to bring him down.

"Okay. I'm gonna play with my friends," Tom said, moving to the middle of the group. The woman, whose real name was Anna, smiled and said softly, "Oh, little Tom. You and your friends' abilities to allow anything to open are more powerful than any other Gatekeeper that I know, and, quite possibly, in the history of Perim and humans combined. Be safe, for if the Black Knights find you, they will use you for their own evil."

* * *

Tom made it to his best friends, Kaz (a red head, pale skin, and big brown eyes), Sarah (a pale skinned girl with green eyes and light blonde hair), and Peyton (a hazel eyed, brown haired, pale skinned boy), on top of the large gentle strawberry roan Clydesdale named Bucky that was their mount. Quickly he located a large rock and climbed on top of Bucky's broad bareback with only a little difficulty.

"Are we ready to go?" Peyton asked, ready for anything that came their way. Tom shrugged.

"Peyton, I don't think that we're going anywhere soon," Sarah started, but was cut off with the sound of the leader, Joseph Crow, call out that it was safe to move on.

"You may be revising those words, Sarah," Kaz said, just as Seth, a teenager that thinks that he, along with his twin Adam, must keep the moral up, grabbed Bucky's reins and led them forward.

"I can't wait to see all the Creatures here!" Tom exclaimed, big eyes looking around, trying to see everything and everyone. "Do you think they'll be friendly?"

"I hope so!" Kaz said, shuddering at the image of a mean Creature.

"Didn't you hear? We're gonna ride through a minefield full of Creatures!" Seth joked, his light brown wrinkling in merriment as his chocolate brown eyes, the same color as his hair, twinkled.

"We are?!" the little ones shouted with absolute delight. Seth nodded his head eagerly, but Adam smacked him on the back of the head.

"We are not going to see any Creatures, and _if_, and that's a big _if_, we see any Creatures, we will not allow them to see us. Clear?" Adam said, being the ever so serious one, despite looking like his twin.

"Aww." The kids saddened at Adam's declaration. The large black Newfoundland beside them whimpered at their sad faces. Sarah looked down at him and said, "It's all right, Socks. We're just not gonna see anyone."

The dog wagged his tail, just as Seth asked, "Why do you insist on calling him 'Socks'? His name is Bruce."

"Nuh-huh! It's Socks!" Peyton said. Seth shook his head.

"No, it's Bruce."

"Socks!" Tom disagreed.

"Bruce."

"Socks!" Kaz and Sarah said.

"Bruce."

"Socks!" Now the whole group joined in.

"Bruce."

"Socks!"

"Bruce!"

By now the whole group had hear the argument, and a man of African descent rounded his mount to them and glared at them. Immediately, they pointed to the other, four little fingers and one big finger pointing at the other while their mouths started to open. The man cut them off with his deep voice saying, "Don't even start. Seth, the children can call that beast whatever they want. Kids, quit starting arguments with Seth. You know better than that. Now zip it, the lot of you! We cannot be caught."

With that he rode away. Adam looked at Seth and said, "Jonathan is right, you know. They can call that Newfie whatever they want and he'll go to them. And his name _is_ Socks."

"No way!" Seth looked at his twin with disbelief. Adam just nodded his head, sympathy on his face.

"How come we didn't take any guns with us?" Peyton asked curiously after awhile of silence. Humans had created them to help them with wars and hunting; however, the group did not bring any. A slightly older Japanese girl, almost an adult, named Shinko smiled and said, "Grandmother said no guns because she says that we need to return to our roots, after a hundred generations of being gone. Arrows, bows, daggers, and swords are going to be our primary weapons."

"Yeah, and where would we get the materials for bullets?" Seth said.

"Jonathan said that our ancestors use to fight Creatures in order to keep our villages hidden," Sarah said fearfully. Shinko nodded her head sadly. "We were scared of them. They were bigger, stronger, and had connections to the elements. All we had were our wits, weapons, and puny little muscles."

She dropped her reins and struck a pose much like men do when they want to show off their muscles to the ladies. The kids giggled and laughed at her silliness. Seth and Adam smiled and shook their heads.

"Where are we stopping?" Tom asked as it became darker. Shinko thought for a moment then said, "Near a waterfall. There'll be plenty of grass and water for the horses, and food for us and the dogs. After we spend the night there, we'll end up near a rift the next day."

"Okay." With that little bit of knowledge, all was well in the world of the little Gatekeepers.

* * *

H'earring ran as fast as he could to the village where Maxxor, Chaor, and the rest were staying at. Jumping over logs and other objects, he barely made it to the village when the herd of Skeletal Beasts that Chaor brought with him thundered pass with Tangath Toborn and Rothar right behind them.

He passed Creatures from all tribes packing supplies for the team that was going after the humans and ran straight into the meeting room. Maxxor, Chaor, Marquis Darini, and Odu-Bathax looked up from the map of the Forest of Life at the intrusion, but Chaor narrowed his eyes when he saw H'earring panting at the door.

"H'earring, this better be good or I'll---" Chaor began but H'earring cut him off with, "Sorry, sorry, mighty Chaor, but the news is good."

Chaor raised an eyebrow while the others looked interested.

"Proceed," Chaor growled in his deep voice. H'earring rushed over to Chaor's side to relay his report.

"The humans are heading towards a waterfall on the Moonlight Trail. After that they're gonna be near a rift," H'earring said proudly in his somewhat squeaky voice.

Intress and Maxxor immediately looked at the map and quickly located the Moonlight Trail. Trailing her finger up to the spot where the waterfall was, Intress tapped her finger and shook her head.

"We'll never make it in time. The supplies aren't complete and it would take us a full day to reach there. We'll miss them."

Maxxor pointed at the rift on the map.

"If we set up here, it would still take us a full day, but we would have the advantage of surprise. A full day surprise in fact." Murmurs of agreement sounded throughout the room, and one by one they nodded their consent. Maxxor began to roll up the map, ready to put it away.

"Then it's settled. Warriors, prepare to move out!" Takinom shouted, and everyone except H'earring, Intress, Chaor, Takinom, and Maxxor were left in the room. Maxxor knelt to H'earring's level and asked, "Can you take this to Blazier? He's by the BattleGear pile."

He handed H'earring the map, and stood back up. H'earring looked at the map for a second, flabbergasted, then nodded and rushed out of the room. Takinom looked at Maxxor and said, "You know, you just made him the happiest Creature in the whole team."

Maxxor shrugged. "And if I did? There's no harm."

He slung his arm around Intress's shoulders. "Come on. Let's help the others."

With that, Maxxor too left the room with Intress in tow, and Takinom and Chaor following.

* * *

Tom, Kaz, Sarah, and Peyton looked around the area in amazement. The waterfall and its area were very plentiful in water, fruits and berries. Grass was thick, and the dogs could hunt for their food. The sunset was radiating off of the water, turning everything into a bright orange color.

Everyone else was dismounting, so the children did the same. Seth stretched his arms up and grinned at the small kids.

"Bet you're glad to be off of Bucky, huh?" he teased, noticing how Tom and Sarah were stretching their legs while Kaz and Peyton were doing twists. Tom nodded his head, and Seth continued, "Get used to it, we're gonna be living that for awhile."

Adam shook his head at his twin's words, knowing how true his words were. Shinko smacked Seth and said to Sarah, "Don't worry, Cricket. We're allowed to walk at times."

Cricket was Shinko's nickname for Sarah, given for her fascination in insects: Peyton was Sand Flea for his ability to cling to everything, Tom was Tiger for his risk-taking, and Kaz was Crane for his cautious nature.

After everyone took their horses' bridals off (no saddles, too much of a hindrance) so that they can be watered and fed, the group gathered supplies for dinner that night. Peyton and Kaz grabbed as many ripe berries as they could, which was a fleet unto itself because they didn't know what was ripe and what was not, while Tom and Sarah gathered firewood. After supper was cooked, distributed, and gulped down, the children, Seth, Adam, and Shinko played a simple game of fan toss with the shukusen, a deadly weapon with ribs of steel that were dull at the base and razor sharp at the edges with cherry red silk on it. Shinko said that ancient Japanese women would carry one if they felt threatened. After the game, everyone went to bed, to be ready to move out at dawn. Tom, Peyton, Kaz, and Sarah fell asleep on top of Socks, and the only sound that could be heard throughout the camp was the sound of the wind and the sentry's breathing.

* * *

The moon was high over head when every Creature assembled behind their tribal leader.

Maxxor looked behind him at the team that was assembled. A lot of his friends were coming with him, and popular Underworlders were coming for Chaor. Tiaane was coming along along with Mipeadians that Marquis Darini had personally hand-picked for the job. Odu-Bathax had Wamma and his squads under his control, and everyone had at least two pieces of BattleGear on them. Fliers were under Takinom's control, which included Oqua, Flaco, and Creatures with Torweggs. Skeletal Beasts were the main mounts, along with Mowercycles and Viledrivers.

Maxxor turned around and gave the command.

"Move out!"

Quickly, everyone spurred into motion, going into the Forest of Life using the light given off by the full moon.

_**A/N Part 2: What do you think? Read and Review, please!**_


	3. Chapter 2

_**A/N: I do own nothing except the OCs and myself and God help those who say that the OCs are theirs.**_

Gatekeepers Ch. 2

Rothar looked at the spot where the Danians said was the best spot to surprise anyone. Nobody was going to disagree with them; they knew better than to argue with the people who lived underground in tunnels and caves. It was near pure water, and they could hide the BattleGear and Mugics in the caves and tunnels that reside in the sides. Right now the sky above it was full of grey and heavy clouds, ready to pour rain on them.

Rothar sighed. The waiting was getting to him. He was a Creature that worked better moving, not standing around being useless. And more than anything else, he hated doing nothing.

Looking down, he saw H'earring wearing what was the Creature version of earmuffs. The things were fluffy, round to accommodate all sensitive ears, and worn like a headband. It looked ridiculous on him.

Rothar frowned and growled, "H'earring, take those off! You're embarrassing yourself."

H'earring looked at him and shook his head. "No! My ears are sensitive, you know that!"

Scowl on his face, Rothar said, "That's only because you were on _Blazier's Mowercycle!_ Now take them off!"

Again, H'earring shook his head. Rorthar's scowl turned into a snarled and made a move to the little green Creature. Yelping, H'earring ran away from the bigger Creature to hide behind Oqua. The blue dragon-like Creature looked at H'earring in surprise at first, then glared.

"Don't hide behind _me_ just because _you_ won't follow his directions!" he scolded in his screechy voice.

"Nobody will be fighting each other on this mission," a voice of authority said. Takinom strode forward and stopped in front of Rothar. "Chaor and Maxxor's orders. Do I make myself clear, Rothar?"

Rothar looked down. "Sorry, Takinom. It's just frustrating."

Takinom looked at Rothar with empathy. "I know, Rothar. I know that it's hard waiting. Do you think anyone else likes it when it's time to wait for a surprise with no hints to what it will contain? Be patient, talk to someone or guard the supplies."

With a nod, Rothar walked away, heading towards his own cave. Takinom looked at Omar and H'earring.

"Oqua, watch the rear of the rift to make sure that nobody comes up the slope from the river. H'earring, with me," she ordered briskly. Oqua nodded his head and headed to the back; he knew better than to disobey Chaor's mate.

Meanwhile, Takinom and H'earring went into the main cave that was being used as a council room. Upon entering, they saw that a map had been rolled out and the tribal leaders for the mission were all over it. The light that allowed them to even see the map came from the back of the cave, which led to the tunnel to the main cavern. Everyone could go there because all the tunnels leading to the caves, even the ones on the other side of the rift.

Chaor whipped his massive head around to see his mate and H'earring standing at the opening.

"H'earring, in here," he growled, motioning for the little Creature to come in. H'earring practically bounced into the cave; knowing that he could help besides being a scout made him full of energy. Maxxor gently lifted H'earring up onto the map so that he could see the map. Meanwhile, Takinom moved into the cave as well and stood behind her mate with her arms crossed and leaning against the wall.

"How many humans were in the group you saw yesterday, H'earring?" Marquis Darini asked, concern written all over his face.

"Uh, about forty humans and the creatures they were with. Why?" H'earring looked at the looks that he was receiving, a mixture of anger, concern, and disappointment. He began to be scared and was about to babble when Intress saved him.

She dropped into the cave, returning from patrol. Maxxor smiled at seeing his mate safe, and H'earring was grateful for the save. Striding over quickly, worry masked her usual smile. Takinom arched an eyebrow at the other's expression.

"Things are not going as planned, is it?" she asked the Overworlder. There was still a bit of a rivalry between the two, but it's slowly dissolving over time.

Intress sighed, shaking her head no. Walking over to the map, she grabbed three colored stones from their marked positions and put them into new ones. A red one was placed on a spot where there were many trees, but a trail was still visible, near the rift. A dark blue one was put on another trail with many trees, like the red stone, but farther away from the rift. The last stone, which was a yellow, was placed out in the open and near the rift.

"This stone," Intress began, pointing to the yellow stone, "represents an entirely different group than the ones H'earring saw."

"But I just saw one!" H'earring cried out in alarm.

"Let me finish, okay? You're not in trouble," she reassured him. Returning to the map she continued, "The big group H'earring saw was actually two separate groups that were together until this afternoon."

She pointed to the red stone. "This is the one we _have_ to look out for. They're heading our way and they look like they have some tough humans in it."

Odu-Bathax scoffed. "We can take care of them. Wiping them out will be easy!"

"No one will be wiping anyone out, Odu-Bathax!" Maxxor snarled. The others glared at the blue ant as well.

"We need these humans to find the others," Marquis Darini said. Intress took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"There's something else."

Surprised, the leaders whipped their heads around at her. She continued, "There are little ones with them. If they'll like us, and I'm betting they are, then those kids and their safety are going their top priority."

Maxxor looked down at the map, brows furrowed, fingers tapping out a rhythm. Intress knew what that meant; her mate was thinking of a plan. Finally, he said with a sigh, "Get me Gespedan."

Intress nodded and went to find him. Odu-Bathax looked at Maxxor confused.

"Why do you need your _spy_ for?" he asked. Chaor was the only one that had an understanding look on his face.

"Going to get one of the humans before the storm?" Chaor bluntly asked. Maxxor looked at the Underworld leader with a touch of annoyance.

"I'm getting someone, yes, but not a human."

Takinom cocked her head slightly. "Then who?"

Gespedan arrived moments later with Intress right behind him.

"You needed me, Maxxor?" he asked with a little bow.

"Yes, go back to the village and bring Najarin. We'll need his experience with these people." Maxxor ordered. Another little bow, and Gespedan was off to fetch Najarin.

Takinom looked at the map again. "So, wait. What about the yellow group?"

Intress snorted. "If they're trouble, then I'm Yokkis. They're scrawny, they have mounts, and carrying lots of their own version of BattleGear. The potential to be dangerous? They _are_ dangerous."

Marquis Darini rubbed his forehead. "This is not good. We have two groups and a storm coming in and we only have a couple of hours until sunset. When will the yellow group be here?"

Intress shrugged. "If they push on through the storm, then they'll be here by the middle of the night."

Chaor growled, then brightened. "H'earring."

H'earring, forgotten until then, jumped.

"Yes, Chaor?" he nervously asked.

"We're going to need scouts. Lots of scouts. At least one from each tribe," Chaor said.

"…All right?" Confused, H'earring hopped off the table and hurried off to find the scouts. Just as he left, a few drops of rain began to fall, then picked the pace up to a light drizzle.

Marquis Darini took one look outside and sighed.

"It's going to be a long night," he simply said. Maxxor couldn't help but agree with him.

* * *

Tom looked at the sky again. Owen Jesslew, a brown haired boy of twelve, had just joined their group, the Rabbits, after the Bloody Eagles split with them, looked over at him from his bay mount, Dirtboss.

"You keep looking at the sky like it's going to fall on us!" he teased gently, his grey eyes twinkling. Tom looked at the chubby boy confused.

"I'm trying to find any fliers, that's all," he said. Peyton had seen a blue blur earlier, and Sarah claimed to see a tiger woman in the trees. Tom and Kaz were the only ones on Bucky that hadn't seen anyone.

"What did I tell you?" Adam scolded. Jonathan smacked him on the back of the head with his massive hand. He was a big African man with large muscles that can be seen through slightly loose shirts and covered in scars. A white cobra, coiled and ready to strike, with ruby eyes tattoo on his left shoulder blade showed his former alliance with the deadly Hu-Nun-Ki, a group dedicated to the arts of weapons and hand-to-hand combat.

"Joseph said that if we are seen, we are not to act like frightened deer and hide. He said that we act honorably and show ourselves to the people," Jonathan corrected in his deep voice. Seth looked at his twin in mock sympathy.

"And to think," Seth began, "we were shaking like leaves when a Creature appeared."

SMACK!!!

"Ow! Shinko that really hurt!" Seth whined. Shinko held her shukusen in her hand, the base having been used to hit Seth.

"Serves you right. You shouldn't bait your twin," she reprimanded. Pouting and rubbing his head, Seth settled down. Soon after, the rain started as a drizzle, then became harder and thunder sounded over head.

"Dismount!" Joseph called out when it became too hard to see without a flashlight. Quickly, the now group of ten or so dismounted and Tom took Bucky's reins in his tiny hands. Kaz rooted through the saddlebags for a flashlight. Finding it, he tossed it to Tom, who turned it on, and hopped off. The 18-hand Clydesdale was so gentle, he allowed Tom to lead him up the hill that the others were going up with the flashlight on. Walking next to Socks and looking over to the side, Peyton gulped.

"Peyton? What's wrong?" Sarah asked. Peyton just pointed down. Anna and Sarah looked as well. Anna nodded in understanding.

"Yes, Peyton, that's the rift. Just don't look at it, all right? You're okay." Peyton nodded and looked at everything but the edge. Joseph turned the group back into the forest and away from the edge just as lightning flashed its forked tongue and thunder rumbled. Kaz flinched slightly at the storm, but pressed on with the rest.

Finally, the group came upon a rock formation that looked like a table. It was big enough to shelter everyone, including the horses and dogs. After everyone dried off, a cold dinner was made from left-over rice, fruit, and beans.

"Think anyone will be out tonight?" Kaz asked around a mouthful of rice.

"Don't talk with your mouth full, Kaz," Alana said. Her ice blue eyes were as warm as her cocoa skin and her short black hair.

"Sorry," Kaz mumbled. Shinko laughed.

"I don't think anyone will be out tonight, Kaz, especially this weather," she answered for Alana. Kaz looked disappointed. Jonathan couldn't blame the little red head; he wanted to see a Creature as well.

After dinner was cleaned up, everyone pitched in to keep each other warm. The children, which included Owen, were bundled up in several blankets and one big blanket. The adults and warriors bundled up as well into several different groups. Seth and Adam almost had Shinko in their group, but Anna swooped in like a bird of prey and pulled her away.

"Grandmother!!" Shinko protested with a laugh. Anna just continued to pull her away from the two boys.

Finally, everyone settled down.

"Good night!" Tom called out.

"Sleep tight!" Shinko replied.

"Try not to teleport tonight!" Seth called out.

"_SETH!!!!!!"_

The youngest had discovered their teleporting powers that came with their Gatekeeping by accident. Sarah had a bad dream soon after they came to Perim and teleported into a cottage in the woods. The owner, "a weird looking colorful ball with feathers on his butt" as Sarah put the Creature, was thankfully asleep at the time and didn't notice her going out the window. Thankfully, no more teleporting incidents had happened to the other little Gatekeepers. There were several with the Bloody Eagles' Gatekeeper, as he teleported short distances and places when he snored.

Tom fell asleep fairly quickly, while others had to listen to Seth and Adam's horrible snoring before falling asleep. For the Rabbits, the night will be uneventful until near dawn.

* * *

Blazier quietly grumbled under his breath. He was having a grand time mapping the tunnels and caves of the rift the team was staying. Unfortunately he had sentry duty just as he was about to begin a new section on his map. Thankfully it was almost dawn, and H'earring was with him after being waken. Unthankfully, it was still raining and neither one of them couldn't see farther than a couple of feet from their cover, a log that had been blown over by the wind near a tunnel entrance.

Suddenly a pair of hooves appeared in front of their hide-away, coming from the front of the rift. Blazier frowned at the sight. _**Why is Staluk here?**_ he wondered. There were tunnels before their own, but only one was big enough for Staluk to come out of, and they would have heard him coming. H'earring poked his head out from under the log.

"Staluk? It's not time for a sentry change; we just got here," he called out. Blazier poked his head out to tell the centaur-like Creature to get lost. Just then, heat lightning lit up the sky and revealed the person in the rain.

It wasn't Staluk.

The creature in front of them had two heads, one on the back and in the front. The head on the back had a torso and two arms. The head in the front looked like it had Staluk's head, but not completely. The rest of the body looked like Staluk as well but like the head, it wasn't quite there.

_It was a monster!_ Blazier decided that much when he felt H'earring shaking beside him.

Suddenly, the torso disconnected itself from the main body and jumped down to the ground. Blazier gritted his teeth as he and H'earring saw that the monster was really two creatures. The "torso" had a pair of long legs that looked mechanical. In fact, the being probably was mechanical! At least, Blazier hoped so.

Squatting down, the being reached up, grabbed its head and _pulled_ it off. Blazier was sure H'earring was going to faint. Then he realized that the creature took it off only to reveal that it was like a hat.

"Well, well." Blazier could almost _hear_ the smirk behind the voice. "Aren't _we_ in trouble?"

* * *

Tom began to have a horrible dream around dawn.

_He was in large building, with concrete all around him. He saw everyone in the Rabbits, along with his mother and father, packing for a trip. He was packing too. He was almost done when an explosion knocked him off his feet. Grabbing his bag, he lurched to the door with the others. _

The actual Tom began to tremble in his little group.

_Reaching outside, he dashed for the fence like the others who were avoiding the fires. A hole had been there forever and people were going under it. He too went under the fence and waited for his parents. Finally, his mom appeared. _

"_Mommy?" he asked. His mom reached through the chain linked fence and cupped his face. _

"_Baby, I've got to find your father. Run, okay? We'll catch up with you. I need you to be brave. Can you do that? Can you be brave for Mommy?" she asked breathlessly. The dream Tom nodded his head. His mom kissed his forehead through the fence and raced back through the fires. _

The real Tom's body began to gather energy.

_The dream Tom ran the other direction of the fence. He had just crested a hill when a massive explosion destroyed the camp. He looked over his shoulder to see the fiery remains. His parents were both gone._

VOMPH!!!! Tom unconsciously teleported away from the whole campsite. Kaz was the first to wake after he ported. Alarmed, he screamed.

"_TOMMY TELEPORTED!!!"_

* * *

Tom awoke after he tried to port from his nightmare and ended up in a massive cave. This cave was filled with various items that looked like weapons such as swords and war hammers. There were things that he couldn't identify without help.

Looking behind him, Tom noticed an iron door that was several feet taller than him and looked like it was locked. Going up to it, he put his tiny hands against the cold metal and willed it to unlock. The Bloody Eagle's Gatekeeper taught Tom, Kaz, Peyton, and Sarah that in order to lock and unlock an object, one must have the willpower, or wanting, to have it unlock.

Tom thrust all of his will into the lock. Clacking and twists could be heard in the door, and the door creaked open. Peeking around the corner, he cautiously walked to a light source that showed a path. When he got closer to the light source, he started to crawl, scared that he would find a Black Knight group. Careful of loose rocks and stones, Tom peeked over the edge of the path.

"Wow!" he breathed, amazed at what he saw. Creatures of all shapes, sizes, and colors were in a large cavern with caves and tunnels, Tom wasn't sure which, leading out and beyond. Many were yawning or grabbing food. Several were slumped over tables, not ready to be awake. But what caught Tom's attention was a tall and muscular green man that carried himself like a leader. He had weird purple tattoos that swirled. His black hair stood in all directions, and Tom was sure that he was seeing Sarah's tiger woman right next to him!

Suddenly, a shout sounded and the Creatures were moving fast. Tom was confused until he noticed a tunnel being surrounded. A little yellow man, bound by what looked like a boa constrictor of rope, was tossed out of the tunnel. A white bird like Creature moved toward him, but from what Tom could tell he was stopped by a knife. Movement in the tunnel attracted his attention, and he clasped both hands around his mouth.

Black armor flashed in the light. Humans entered the cavern, smirks and sneers on their faces. One held a little green bunny looking person who was tied as well. The person who looked to be the ringleader stepped forward.

"Ladies and gentlemen, Creatures of all ages, you will be giving us what we want…" she began.

"Or we'll have rabbit and hiker stew!!" One of the lackeys finished, picking up the yellow man. The group started to laugh like jackals and hyenas. Tom removed his hands from his mouth and whispered two words.

"_Black Knights!"_

**_A/N: Dun dun dunnnnn!! Will the Creatures survive? Will Najarin be there? Will Tom be found? Find out next time on Gatekeepers!!!Read and Review please! _**


	4. Chapter 3

_**A/N: I own nothing except the plot, the OCs, and the craziness. Have fun!**_

Gatekeepers Ch. 3

Tom could practically feel the tension in the air, even though he was high up in the cavern. The green man was joined with a tall red gargoyle-liking man, a blue ant, and a weird looking dog/carp/lizard man with a blue cape around his neck. The Black Knight ringleader continued to smirk.

"Well? Are you just going to stand there or are you willing to negotiate?" she impatiently asked.

Tom could hear the growls deep in the Creatures' chests. He knew that the leader was playing with fire now. Apparently, _she_ did _not_ or she didn't _care_, judging on how her stance was and the smirk on her face read.

"Help," Tom whispered to the wind.

* * *

Maxxor just glared at the human with hate. Blazier was missing his hat, which was on a human male's head. He knew that Chaor was ready to spit fire, and Takinom was about to join him. Odu-Bathax and Marquis Darini looked worried as well; the best scouts were now in the hands of the humans.

Feeling a hand on his shoulder, Maxxor saw Najarin with a sympathetic look on his face.

"Perhaps the safest route will be to be to comply. Even the wisest know when a battle is lost," he gently said. Maxxor took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"Very well," he muttered. Glaring at the black armored humans, he jerked his head to the back of the cavern. "This way."

Turning around, the leaders walked to the back, where there was a cave in the rock formation that carried the river in the back of the rift to two separate waterfalls that fell to the side, one side creating a small river while the other created a pool. Oqua, who slept behind the formation, looked at the procession with sorrow and anger on his face. Chaor glared at him, and Oqua disappeared behind the formation.

Maxxor and the others turned around when they heard strange sounds behind them. Turning quickly, they saw that the leader was directing her troops. Leading their mounts and keeping a tight hold on their hostages, the black armored group pushed through the ring of Creatures. Odu-Bathax noted that one of the mounts snapped at Aivenna, who was with her twin, Nivenna (the two still don't quite get along), holding Lomma back. Others were moving out of the way so that they can get through.

Making it to the rock formation, the ringleader snapped orders in the strange tongue at her troops. Quickly, the group began to pull the armor off of their mounts and themselves. Some had unarmored their mounts first and took them to the river for water. Others were tying the mounts to rocks and grabbing buckets. Nodding in approval, she said, "Do NOT lose our keys."

Turning she walked over to where the tribal leaders were standing. Takinom and Intress had joined their mates while waiting for the ringleader to finish.

"Still can't believe that we have to comply with the demands of a human," Takinom muttered to Chaor. Chaor glanced down to the bat-winged she-Creature.

"I don't like it either, but if we don't get H'earring and Blazier back, we'll be up to our necks in trouble," he told her gently. Takinom sighed and looked up at her mate.

"What can I do?" she asked. Chaor turned to go into the cave with the others.

"Keep the Underworlders in line, and pray for a miracle," he simply said before going in.

* * *

Tom barely stifled his gasp when he heard what the Black Knight ringleader was going to do. She was going to slaughter the Rabbits after the negotiations were complete and the group left the cavern! _**Not gonna happen!**_ he thought furiously.

He had his slingshot still, since Seth had a habit of trying to use it, and his spyglass, as ordered by Joseph for everyone. Tom then realized that he had hit a brick wall. There were at least thirty Black Knights and only one of him.

Suddenly, a large hand clamped over his mouth and another around his belly, pulling him back into the room full of weapons. Wrenching himself from the hands, Tom turned around to see Kaz, Peyton, Sarah, Owen, and Seth.

"Thank goodness we found you!" Seth overdramatically exclaimed, even though his voice was low and pulled Tom into a tight hug. Tom desperately squirmed in Seth's grip, finally popping out through his arms and falling on his butt.

"What's going on out there?" Kaz asked, pointing to the outside of the door.

"There's 'bout thirty Black Knights down there, and they holdin' two Creatures hostage!" Tom explained. "After the negotiations are done, the Knights are gonna attack us! We gotta save them to break the contract!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa…whoa. We are NOT going to help them when we've got enough on our plate!" Seth said, hands in a "calm down" position.

"We should! They need help, and the Rabbits always give help!" Sarah said, stomping her foot.

"I have my sling shot and there are plenty of stones! Plus my spyglass!" Tom inputted.

"And I have my shukusen on me, that's useful!" Sarah added hopefully.

"I'm sorry, but the answer is 'no.' We've got orders to get back with the others." Seth was crumbling though, they could feel it. For the _coup de grace_, the little ones, plus Owen who was siding with the foursome, gave all they got into their secret weapon. Seth's eyes widen.

"Oh, no. Nononono, no, _no_. Please! Do _NOT_ give me that look. That's the Look of Evil! NO!!" He turned his face away, covering it with his hands, only to peek through his fingers to see the little faces. Groaning in defeat, he asked, "Do we at least have a plan, even if it's half formed?"

"Sorta." Peyton admitted. Seth gave the chubby boy an astonished look.

"Did you all just _plan_ this ahead or something?" he asked.

"Well, we talked about many plans, but we've really like this one," Kaz sheepishly said. Seth raised an eyebrow and sighed.

"Owen, take a tunnel and get back to the others. Tell them that we're in the caves and that a Black Knight group is holding Creatures hostage. Negotiations are happening right now and after they're done the Knights are comin' after us." Owen nodded and, being one of the mountain folk knowing all rocks and the way they leave signs, rushed off through one of the tunnels and hopefully to outside. Meanwhile, Seth thought furiously to himself, _**I've got to learn from Adam to defeat them.**_ After all, Adam, the adults, and Shinko somewhat know how to defeat the kids' _Little Lost Puppy_ look.

* * *

Tangath Toborn stood near Staluk when he heard the slight scraping noise over the thunder of the storm. His ears perked up, and he began to search for the source of the noise. He also noticed that others had stopped and listened as well, including the struggling Lomma. Intress heard it as well; the humans just sat with strange colored liquids or stood looking at them with confusion on their faces. One of the lackeys was muttering to himself and tossing thankfully empty buckets over to the side.

"Tangath, Lomma, Aivenna, find out what that noise is," Intress ordered.

"Nivenna, Rothar, Ulmar, Tiaane, go with them!" Takinom added, naming the Mipeadian Muge for sneaking up on who was spying on them. Nodding, the ones named ran to the nearest tunnel to search for whoever was making the noise.

They had just made it to the tunnel when the rock came out of nowhere…and hit the one tossing the buckets.

* * *

"I want to take a shot at the one who said that they'll have the Creatures for stew!" Tom heated said, not noticing the perking of the ears and the change of stances. The plan was Peyton was going to shoot at random Knights while Kaz and Tom rescued the two hostages. Sarah would weaken the lead ropes for the horses and Seth would grab as many of the Knights' weapons as he could.

"Dude, why? I'm probably gonna get him anyways," Peyton complained. Tom shook his head.

"I wanna make sure that he gets hurt for what he said! That's canni-ball-ism, rabbit and hiker stew!" Tom replied furiously.

"Cannibalism." Seth automatically corrected.

"Okay, okay! Here." Peyton handed Tom the slingshot. Observing the rocks and stones around him, Tom chose a stone about the size of a golf ball. Putting it in the pocket, he lied flat on his belly and took aim. Pulling the pocket with the stone passed his ear, he released. The rock hit its mark, and the man yelped. One of the more alert men pulled out his revolver and pointed it at the man.

"Jack! Something hit me head!" the bucket-tossing man said, holding his ear.

"Zip it, Izzy! This place is cursed! We mustn't wake the ancestors!" The man put his revolver into its holster.

"Well, the ancestors can kiss my sweet ass good-bye because they did squat for us!" A woman said, sniggering. As the two Knights began to argue, Tom handed the slingshot back to Peyton.

"One down, so many more to go," he muttered to Peyton, who nodded and took Tom's old position. Picking a separate tunnel, Sarah, Tom, Kaz, and Seth went to begin putting the plan into motion.

* * *

Aivenna looked at the fighting humans with her sister and the others at the arguing humans. Feeling a nudge at her side, she turned to see Nivenna motioning her to follow. Doing so, Aivenna left the argument behind for now.

"Nivenna?" she asked her twin.

"Yeah?"

"What do you think those colored liquids are for?"

"Tch, who knows and who cares? C'mon let's find whatever made that noise and get back down to the others," Nivenna answered impatiently. Aivenna nodded and continued on with the rest.

Suddenly, Tangath Toborn signaled for a halt and pressed himself against the wall. Rothar and the rest did the same, just as what to be three little humans, plus a human that looked to be an adult, walked past. They seemed to be in a hurry, and one looked like he was carrying a bag that Aivenna was pretty sure came from their weapons room.

"Okay, so I get the dangerous job of taking all the guns from drunk and sober troops _why_ exactly?" the adult-liking one asked. One of the little ones, the only female Aivenna noted, turned to the bigger one and scowled.

"Tom and Kaz are getting the hostages, I'm cuttin' the horses loose, and 'cause you're the oldest, Seth!" With a huff, the little female turned around and continued onward.

"Awww, bugger." The one called Seth muttered.

"Not only that, but you might find your hatchet too," one of the other little humans, the black-haired one, said. Seth opened his mouth, then obtained a thoughtful expression.

"Touché, Tom, touché. Just as bad when the lot of you gave me the _Look of Evil_!" he said, moving on with the small group. After they left, Tangath looked at the others with amazement.

"Horses?" He just said.

"The Look of Evil? What's that?" Tiaane asked the others, who shrugged.

Nivenna looked past both of them and tried to see the tunnel the humans came from.

"All right, who wants to tell Intress and Takinom that there are more humans than the ones holding H'earring and Blazier?" Lomma asked. Tangath looked that Rothar, who looked at Nivenna, who looked at Aivenna, who looked at Lomma herself, who looked at Tiaane, who looked at Ulmar. Ulmar slumped at the realization that he would have to face the two females. Rothar took pity on him and said that he would go with him.

"What are we going to do about the others?" Aivenna asked after the two Underworlders left.

"Nivenna, Aivenna, with Lomma for the adult. Tiaane, with me," Tangath ordered. Nodding, the teams went their separate ways.

* * *

Tom and Kaz waited in the tunnel that was near the two hostages. In fact, it was right below them! They had reached several dead-ends, and was about to head back to Peyton when they discovered the passageway. Sarah and Seth had gone ahead of them and began their parts of the plan.

"What do you think the Creatures will do to us if Joseph and the others don't get to us?" Kaz asked nervously. Tom shrugged.

"Don't know, but I gotta feelin' that 'blessings' are not going to be rained on for the Knights once we get the hostages away from them," he replied, looking at the entrance to the large cavern. He could hear the waterfalls falling and over the waterfalls he could hear the rumble of the storm.

"Kaz, I don't think that we're gonna be riding today," Tom simply said.

"Yeah," Kaz agreed. Another yelp sounded outside, this time female. The bucket-man, as the kids dubbed him, was hit so many times, they lost count. There had been at least seven shots to the butt and the Creatures were either finding this a source of amusement or a problem, or both.

Suddenly, Sarah poked her head up from the cavern. Her shukusen was out and fanned with little rope fibers in the ribs.

"The horses' ropes are not completely cut through," she began, joining the boys on level ground, "but it's enough to break if one gets spooked."

"All right!" Tom exclaimed.

"What about the Knights? Where are they positioned? Did Seth get most of the weapons?" Kaz asked.

"From what I could tell, most of the sober Knights are near the river and the main entrance. Seth's got some of their weapons when they were seating down, and he's working on the drunk ones now."

"Okay, me and Tom are headin' in to get the hostages, are you going back up to the ridge?" Kaz nodded his head back to the other tunnels.

"Yeah, spooking the horses will be _sweet_," Sarah said as she went back to Peyton. Tom giggled a little after she left. He began to go down to the cavern's light, Kaz following him. Peeking up from the tunnel, he looked around and came face to face with a Black Knight. Shrinking back quickly while trying not to yelp, Tom noticed that the Knight was asleep…and reeked of beer. Disgusted, he looked around at who was up and who was drunk.

The Knights that were up were indeed by the main entrance and the river. The ones in the river were grabbing fish, or at least trying to. Several Creatures were watching them, including the tiger woman and an old blue man with a really long beard.

The drunk Knights were either hiccupping, sleeping, spouting of the weirdest things, or being total light weights and throwing up. Tom continued his grossed out face as Kaz poked his head up with him.

"Look at her!" Kaz whispered, pointing to a Creature near the tiger woman. Tom looked at who he was pointing at and blinked at the bat-winged she-Creature that had an air of authority surrounding her. Shaking his head at Kaz's admiration, he began to search for the hostages. It wasn't hard, as they were only right next to the entrance.

Tom nudged Kaz and pointed at the two. Quickly the boys moved over to the Creatures. Poking one in the shoulder, Tom gained their attention. Turning their heads to reveal wild green eyes and a goatee, plus blue eyes and large floppy ears, the two hostages looked at the two little humans. The goatee one opened his mouth, but Tom covered it quickly.

"We're getting you out of here, relax," Kaz said. Tom noticed that a lion-man coming out of a tunnel and motioning to a bug woman to head in the way he came out, then bounding to the tiger woman, who was speaking to a minotaur. A dark spot moved upriver towards one of the Knights.

"Tom!" Kaz hissed. Tom snapped his attention back to his friend and the hostages.

"Sorry. Thought I saw Jon," he said. Kaz looked over at the river and saw the dark blob too. Excitedly, he turned back to Tom and whispered, "It _is_ Jon!"

Tom looked at the ridge to see Sarah positioning herself with the slingshot in hand.

"Sarah's ready, and Seth is near the horses behind a bunch of large rocks, picking off weapons," Tom said, turning to the others. Looking up at the Creatures, he grabbed the ropes of the goatee Creature while Kaz grabbed the floppy-eared one. A quick thumbs up to Sarah and Peyton signaled their readiness.

"Will this work?" the floppy eared one asked nervously.

"It works; we're making it up as we go along!" Tom cheerfully told him. Both Creatures had only a second to look horrified before one of the horses screamed and they were pulled into the tunnel.

* * *

"What?" Takinom growled dangerously at Ulmar. He quivered under the glare of his leader's mate.

"How did they get passed us?" Intress asked. They had just received news of the tunnel humans.

"Right now, we need to figure out to get rid of the humans we have now," Najarin whispered at the lot of them. He was observing the humans and how they acted. They had changed over the last several hundred years since he'd seen them, he noted. Ruder and crude with everything except their weapons. He had noticed that some were missing their weapons and glanced at the ones sitting down, just in time to see a brown and tan head poke up and a hand grab a knife.

"It seems that the other humans want to be our allies," Najarin muttered to the others. Intress and Rothar looked around Najarin to see the hand retreat to the rocks. Rothar snorted and was about to say something when Tangath Toborn arrived.

"The humans in the tunnels called for backup. At least one human in the river and if there's one…" he trailed off.

"Then there's going to be more," Takinom whispered, horrified. The black armored humans were plenty, the ones in the tunnels were trouble, but more than those? That's too much.

Suddenly, one of the humans' mounts made a noise that sounded that it was going to die and snapped its line. Others panicked and all the lines snapped. Soon the mounts were everywhere, running around Creatures and trying to escape.

Najarin heard the anger in the voice of the human ringleader as she rushed out of the meeting with the tribal leaders behind her, "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE?!"

Turning quickly, Najarin watched as she ran over to where the mounts were formally tied. The thief, as he presumed from the way he stole the knife, was gone from the way she didn't try to attack the rocks as she inspected the ropes.

"WHO WAS ON GUARD DUTY FOR THE HORSES?!" Whipping her head around to the spot H'earring and Blazier were, she growled. Silence filled the air as she turned to the rest of the humans, anger in her features.

"Where…are…OUR…_KEYS?!!!" _she growled. The ones that were standing pointed to the ones that were either asleep or hiccupping. She growled again and was about to grab one when a strange noise echoed throughout the cavern.

Najarin looked around confused until the noise revealed itself from the main entrance as a small four legged beast with a mix of tan, brown, and black with an underbelly of white. It looked like a wolf, he had seen those, but smaller and the fur was less thick than a wolf's.

The human ringleader snorted in disgust at the sight of the animal.

"I have no time for Shepherds. Kill it," she said, turning back to the soldier she was about to awaken. One of the lackeys closest to the thing tried to grab his weapon, but another near the entrance to the river screamed and began to run away.

Najarin could hear the growl all the way from where he was floating.

"What now?" the ringleader asked impatiently.

"IT'S HIM!!!" the runner yelled. Suddenly, a large mount and rider thundered passed in the river to gain on the running soldier. Najarin could just barely make out the long black hair and dark skin on the rider along with the bow in his hand as he blurred past.

"_IT'S CROW!!!!!"_ he screamed before an arrow appeared in his throat.

_**A/N part 2: Will the kids make out alive? Will they stay out of trouble? What do you think? Read and review, please!**_


	5. Chapter 4

_**A/N: Longest chapter I've ever done! Y'all know the routine, I don't own anything but my OCs and the plot.**_

Gatekeepers Ch. 4

Chaor barely understood the screaming human, but the arrow he can identify as a threat and the threat that released it was the human on the mount in the river. He began to charge at the two, intending to bring them down. He stopped short at the whistle above him.

Whipping around, he blinked at the sight of a tan male human with brown hair and a mischievous expression on his face just below the river ledge with Oqua looking at him in surprise. Chaor was about ready to blast the human off with an Ember Swarm when a talonned hand clasped on top of his fist. He turned to glare at Takinom.

"He's an ally. He stole their weapons," she whispered to him. Growling, he stopped his attack just as more humans with mounts and beasts flooded the cavern. Chaor growled again and moved toward one of the humans that was about to backstab a human that looked almost exactly like the human with the bag. Grabbing the enemy, he threw him into the river and watched as another human, bare-chested and dark skinned, erupted from the water and with a yell of "Good hunting!" snapped a soldier's neck. Another soldier behind the dark skinned human screamed.

"HU-NUN-KI!!!" Immediately, everyone within reach of the human in the water human began to run away.

_VOMPH!! VOMPH!!!_ Chaor and everyone else turned their heads at the spot H'earring and Blazier were held, confused.

"RED SQUAD! FIND THE GATEKEEPERS AND KILL THEM!!! I DON'T CARE IF THEY HAVE WEAPONS, KILL THEM!!" the ringleader screamed as she battled two beasts with a sword. A bunch of humans began to head to the tunnels.

With a roar, Chaor ran into battle with everyone else to stop the humans.

* * *

"Never again!! I don't think I can handle a second…whatever you did!" The little floppy eared hostage, who introduced himself as H'earring while his companion was Blazier, said in distraught. Kaz giggled, and H'earring glared from his place in Kaz's arms. Tom held onto Blazier's arm still and giggled as well. Blazier was trying not to laugh at H'earring's position, but it was hard because he looked like a stuffed toy in Kaz's arms.

As soon as Kaz controlled his giggle fit, he looked around to Sarah and Peyton giggling as well. Tom had let Blazier's arm go in favor of covering his giggles. Kaz glanced at the edge and was about to let H'earring down when Blazier said, "HEY, GUYS!!! WE'RE UP HERE!!"

Kaz and the others gasped just as the Creatures cheered and laughed in relief. Tom immediately grabbed Blazier's backpack, having untied him and H'earring in the tunnel.

"_NO!"_ he hissed. _"We're not to be seen!!"_

Kaz and the rest rushed over to help, H'earring still in one arm, grabbing Tom's shirt and pulling. In doing so, Kaz saw that Seth was in the middle of telling a big blue dragon in his Mad Hatter voice, "No room! No room!"

The dragon did not listen to him and joined the battle. Poor Seth had to jump on Magpie, his faithful blanket Appaloosa, and ride with the bag of weapons in hand, his hatchet in his belt (he found it on a Knight and took it back).

Kaz and the others pulled once more and Tom with Blazier came back to the wall.

"There they are!" Whipping their heads around, the four kids and two Creatures saw six Black Knights heading their way. Kaz saw a tunnel and pointed the others to it. They raced into it, barely missing being hit by a battle ax. Going deeper into the tunnel, Kaz heard Tom yell, "Split up! We'll meet back at the big cavern!"

Sarah and Peyton nodded and went down another tunnel. Tom and Kaz with Blazier right behind them and H'earring in Kaz's arms still went down another. Kaz shuddered when he heard a Knight scream, "YOU WON'T GET AWAY THAT EASILY, YOU LITTLE BRATS!!!!"

Kaz just kept running with Tom and Blazier.

* * *

Shinko cut down another Knight with her naginata on top of Dom, her strawberry roan gelding. Risking a moment, she glanced around to see who was around her. A minotaur covered Dom's left flank with a battle ax and a centaur was engaged with another Knight. Dogs ran everywhere, biting Knights and covering their humans. Adam and Seth were covering each other with their hatchets and Alana was shooting those who dared to come close to her. Grandmother was holding her own with a broadsword and a bat-winged she-Creature was covering her. Grandmother's husband, Greg a.k.a. Grandpa, was duking it out with a drunk Knight with a cutlass. Joseph and Jonathan were still in the river making that no Knight escaped. Owen was helping a lion man beat up another Knight.

Shinko returned her attention to another Knight that foolishly tried to attack her. Blocking his sword on the staff of her own weapon, Shinko went on the offensive and produced cuts and scratches on the enemy. The Knight got some good hits on her as well, including a blow to her ribs with the flat of his blade. She suspected, though, that he was trying to run her through.

Finally, she produced a belly cut that hit his intestines and sent him to his knees. Roaring, the Knight went down and Shinko cut his throat for his mercy. _**No one can survive a belly cut,**_ she thought grimly as the throat bled out.

"Retreat! Retreat!!" the ringleader screamed, grabbing a random horse and clambering on. She kicked the poor horse into a fast gallop into the river, heading toward the way Joseph came in.

"Rabbits, surround them! Let none escape!" Joseph ordered, urging his buckskin stallion, Zadar, forward. Shinko eagerly followed his orders, cutting off a couple of drunks from making it to the river. Her flank mates grabbed them, and Shinko finally recognized the ringleader.

Gritting her teeth, she sent Dom into the river with the others, circling the Knights and pulling the noose tighter. Creatures were herding the Knights who were drunk into a separate group, away from the sober ones. Finally, the other Knights surrendered but Shinko had business to take care of.

Dismounting, she grabbed the attention of the ringleader with a splash. Shinko watched as her eyes widen and then narrow.

"Shinko," she hissed. Shinko kept a confident stance as she looked at the Black Knight leader square in the eyes.

"Hello, Cousin Heto."

* * *

Laarina tried to keep up with Tiaane while continuously find the humans. Tangath Toborn asked her to take his place because of a human waiting in the water that looked as big as himself. _**Key words there, Tangath,**_ Laarina thought with dry humor, _**Human, big and yourself.**_

"Are you all right, Laarina?" Tiaane asked as he checked another tunnel. Laarina sighed in expiration.

"I'm fine. Just tired of all these tunnels, that's all," she said, looking at the Mipeadian Muge. Tiaane smiled kindly at her and began to walk forward into the new tunnel. Laarina followed soon after checking the tunnel herself.

She wasn't sure how exactly she missed the two little balls of energy, but she knew that they all were going to hurt tomorrow, particularly their left sides. Groaning, Laarina looked up to see big green eyes filled with wonder staring back at her. Blinking, Laarina looked over at Tiaane to see that he, too, had someone looking back him. She then recognized what hit her.

"Humans!" she snarled, looking back at her "attacker."

"Sorry! I didn't see you! I'm sorry!" her "attacker" gasped, trying to get off of her. Laarina grabbed the human's arm as soon as the little human had solid earth beneath her feet. Righting herself and looking at how Tiaane was doing, Laarina had to resist the urge to giggle. Tiaane had the other by the back of his shirt in one hand, but the human wasn't about to give up. He was flailing his fists around, and his momentum caused him to twist and turn his shirt. Tiaane just stood there with an arched eyebrow and a small smile.

"Will you ever be so kind as to hand over those little brats?" Laarina snapped her attention back to where the little humans came barreling out of. There were two older humans standing there and smirking. Laarina narrowed her eyes at them; one had H'earring in his hands and held a knife to Blazier's neck when he spoke up. Judging by the way that the little one was trying to pull her arm out of Laarina's grasp and whimpering, she shouldn't let the older humans grab the little ones.

Tiaane was obviously was thinking the same thing from the way he was positioning the little boy behind his back. Laarina pushed her own human down to the ground gently and stood over top of her.

"No matter what happens," she whispered to the little human, "I want you to stay under me at all times. All right?"

"Even if you squish me?" the little girl sniffled. Laarina smiled gently and nodded her head.

"Even if I squish you, although I don't think that will happen with us," she assured the other. Looking back at the adult humans, Laarina glared like she would when somebody threatened one of her best friends.

"Well? Aren't you going to hand them over?" the other older human demanded. Out of the corner of her eye, Laarina saw that Tiaane had narrowed his eyes and crouched into a fighter's stance. Taking her own stance, Laarina powered up an Iron Ball attack.

"How about 'no'?" she snarled before releasing the attack onto the enemy. Tiaane did a Tornado Tackle at the first speaker while Laarina hit the other. Both humans grunted and fell to the ground. She smirked, then grew horrified at how the adults just stood up like they had been knocked over by a gust of wind.

"Impossible!" Tiaane gasped, backing up slowly.

"_Improbable._ Anything's possible," one of the bigger humans corrected as he drew a sword from his waist. The other pulled out a large dagger from his boot. Laarina's little human poke her head out and growled.

"You stupid Black Knights!! You always pick on those smaller than you!! You're nothing but jackals and…and…RATS!!" she screamed at the older humans. One "Knight", as the little one called them, snarled and charged. Laarina was prepared for the Knight this time and unleashed a Rock Wave at him and sent him into a tunnel wall. Several large rocks loosened around him and hit him as well. She waited for him to get back up, only he didn't. The Knight was out cold.

The other Knight looked at his companion and then back at Laarina. She growled fiercely at him in hopes that he would surrender, but he looked other at Tiaane, who was comforting his little human.

"I haven't seen you _truly_ fight yet, old timer," he started, lifting up his sword. "Show me what you got."

"With pleasure," Tiaane growled, turning away from the little one behind him to power up another Tornado Tackle. The human roared as he charged at Tiaane, swinging his sword up above his head. Unleashing the Tackle, Tiaane hit him in the gut, sending him back down the tunnel instead of into a wall like his companion. Shaking off the attack, the Knight got up again just in time to see Tiaane pull out a Mugic with Laarina grinning like mad.

"Song of Future Sight!" Tiaane summoned the Mugic while the Knight looked confused while the little humans looked at the Mipeadian in awe. Laarina couldn't blame them; it was probably the first time in centuries since humans had seen a Mugic casting.

"Wow," breathed Tiaane's human, Laarina's human nodding her head in agreement. Laarina smiled gently at the two little ones.

"That's a Mugic for you two to learn to respect," she simply said, turning back to Tiaane's battle. The Knight scoffed at her words.

"What was that? It did nothing and now I can run him through!" He charged again, not noticing the two smirks on Laarina and Tiaane's faces. Laarina just looked at Tiaane as the Knight took the swing that Tiaane saw before hand with the Mugic. Tiaane just stepped out of the way and punched him in the face, gut, and back with rapid procession. With a loud thud, the Knight landed face first into the tunnel floor, unconscious.

Laarina growled at the Knight, but stopped when the little human under her crawled out from under her.

"That was amazing!" Tiaane's human said, also coming out of protection. "The way you used that weird looking…cube thing! That was awesome!!"

Laarina shook her head and proceeded to use Vine Snares on the two Knights. Finishing tying them up, she looked up just in time to see the trickle of blood going down Tiaane's chest.

"Tiaane!" she gasped, rushing over to her comrade. The little ones were already there, scrutinizing the cut.

"It doesn't look deep," the little girl said, frowning. "It looks like a scratch."

"Hold on, hold on," Tiaane chuckled, gaining the attention of both little ones. "We don't even know your names and you wish to speak of injuries to us?"

"Can't blame them," Laarina said with a small laugh, picking up a Vine Snared Knight. "You _were_ impressive."

"Oh!" the little boy gasped like he remembered something. "We forgot to introduce ourselves!"

"You're right!" the little agreed. Turning to Laarina, she hugged her abdomen while saying, "I'm Sarah."

"And I'm Peyton!" the little boy cheerfully said, looking up to Tiaane, who smiled warmly at him.

Laarina was shocked for a moment before returning the hug.

"I'm Laarina," she said.

"Tiaane," her comrade ruffled Peyton's hair, causing him to giggle.

"Come on." Laarina shifted the unconscious Knight from her shoulder to her back while Tiaane grabbed the other. "Let's get out of here."

Herding the two little humans, the group left the tunnel to go back to the cavern.

* * *

Blazier continued to run with the one called Tom through the tunnels, trying to get farther away from the Knight chasing them. After explaining what the humans that caught the two sentries were called, Kaz and H'earring split from them earlier and most of the other Knights followed them. _**They ain't gonna catch us,**_ he thought joyfully.

That is until he bumped into Tom, who had abruptly stopped. Looking around the boy, he saw that the tunnels split into a three way fork.

"Which way do we go?" Tom asked nervously, looking back and forth between tunnels.

"We can go either to the left or the right; they go to the same chamber. One is just longer that the other. The middle is just a dead end," Blazier informed him.

"We can?" Tom turned to look up at him, awe all over his little face. Blazier nodded his head and pushed Tom towards the right tunnel. At Tom's confused stare, Blazier explained, "The right tunnel's the shorter one."

"Oh." Quickly the two went down the separate tunnels. Blazier had just passed the entrance of his tunnel when he heard the roar of the Knight who was still chasing them.

"I'LL FIND YOU!!! AND WHEN I DO, YOU'RE GONNA DIE!!!"

_**Doesn't he ever give up?**_ Blazier wondered. Quickly making a turn, he raced even faster to the chamber. Stopping for a quick breather, he listened for the pounding of heavy feet. Satisfied that he heard nothing, he continued on.

"There it is!" he triumphantly shouted after a couple more twists and corners, sighting the chamber's entrance. Skidding inside, he jumped for joy and cheered.

"Yiii—haaaa! Now that's what I'm talking about! No stupid Knight is gonna catch us! Right, Tom?!" Hearing silence, Blazier called out again. "Tom?"

Turning around to see an empty chamber, Blazier immediately panicked and whirled to look down at the other tunnel.

"Oh, no," he whispered in horror as he broke out into a run.

* * *

Maxxor looked around him after the battle was over, standing hip deep in river water with other Creatures rounding up the remaining black armored humans that were still standing and not swaying on their feet. The human who had done battle with the ringleader won and cut off her head. He saw that a wounded Najarin was being "attacked" by a large black beast that was, from the sounds of it, whimpering and whining at him. Najarin looked like he was trying to pet the thing, but it was wriggling too much.

"Frafdo, make sure that none escape," he ordered to the white feathered Creature. With a salute, Frafdo went to follow his orders.

"Rabbits, start gathering the dead," the black haired warrior that started the battle ordered. Most of the other humans dismounted and began to grab any bleeding and not moving body and drag them on the ground toward the main entrance.

Maxxor narrowed his eyes at the leader. _**He had to be the leader; he gives out orders that are reasonable and holds authority in them, **_he thought to himself. Looking over to the opposite bank with most of the tunnels, he saw that Aivenna, Nivenna, and Lomma had their chance at battle; a new tunnel not far from the ground and the cuts on the humans and Creatures alike proved that much. Right now, the three girls were trying to tie up the humans, looking quite smug. It would have been quicker if it wasn't for the charcoal grey mount that was currently trying to grab Aivenna's attention.

"You know, the more you ignore that mare, the more likely she's going to steal something of yours." Maxxor was beginning to wade up to the bank just as the voice called out the advice. Aivenna whipped her head around to see an old male human that looked much like the old female human that fought with Takinom, except the male looked to be a lighter tan than the female. Not only that, but he was carrying Blazier's hat!

"And what do you mean by that?" Marquis Darini asked as he waded into the river.

"Grandpa's saying that the mare wants attention and will do anything to get it," a small voice called out from the entrance of another tunnel. Maxxor and the others looked on in amazement as the black beast Najarin was petting ran toward the little human that exited the tunnel with another human along with Laarina and Tiaane. The beast proceeded to make the strange noises that its kind made; only this one's were deeper and louder.

"Easy, Socks, easy! We're okay, we're okay!" the other human laughed as both humans tried to calm the beast down. Laarina and Tiaane looked on confused while Maxxor noticed that they were carrying other adult humans.

"Tiaane, Laarina! Take those prisoners over to Odu-Bathax and his Mandiblors!" he ordered. Laarina and Tiaane looked over at the Overworld leader and nodded, taking their catch to the Danians along with Aivenna, Nivenna, and Lomma.

"Where's H'earring and Blazier? Did you see them?" Chaor growled from the other side of the bank. Nivenna nodded her head.

"We saw H'earring with a human, but he was being carried and chased by the idiots here," Lomma added, pointing to the humans that were being tied up. Chaor growled again.

"Kaz isn't here yet?" the little male human asked as he hugged the beast's neck. Tiaane looked up from placing his human with the other prisoners and shook his head no.

"But they're suppose to be here," the other human began just as a loud cracking sound echoed throughout the cavern from a tunnel and a loud yelp followed. After the noise subsided, Chaor looked at Maxxor with a confused look.

_VOMP!!! _

"Oof!" Chaor grunted as something landed on top of him.

"Ha! See, told ya I can get us back in here!" another little human triumphantly exclaimed, who was clutching H'earring. Poor H'earring looked like he was about to be sick.

"Tell that to my stomach," he moaned, drawing all of the Underworlders' attention. Takinom quickly plucked the human from Chaor's back while making him put down H'earring. Soon, the Underworlders swamped Chaor, who raised himself up, and H'earring, trying to talk over each other.

Maxxor made a hard decision between staying in the cavern and finding out what the first noise in the tunnels was about fast.

"Intress, you're in charge of the Overworlders. I can't let anymore humans into this cavern and risk our lives again," he ordered. Intress nodded and began to help the Mipeadians keep the not so alert prisoners in line. Quickly, he ran to another tunnel.

"Wait!" He stopped just as the leader came riding up to him.

"Can you look for Tom? Owen said that the Knights had two of your people. One has returned, yes? The other would be with Tom. Six Knights went up into your tunnels. Five came out. One's missing and right now he's probably chasing your person and my little one. I'll come with you," the leader requested. Maxxor shook his head.

"You do not know the tunnels. You'll get lost and you'll never find your Tom. If I find him, I'll bring him to you," he said turning back to the tunnels. The leader was about to protest when screams from the Underworlders stopped him.

"Hurry," was all he said before both leaders parted ways. Maxxor headed into the tunnels, know that he had to find Blazier and the other humans before someone got hurt. It was his fourth tunnel when he heard the cursing. Changing his course, he arrived to see Blazier swearing his head off down at a hole.

"Blazier!" he called out. Blazier looked up to see his leader and was about to speak but Maxxor cut him off.

"Blazier, I need you to go to the main cavern. I've got the humans," he said.

"But Tom…" Blazier began.

"Don't worry. I'll get him," Maxxor reassured the little scout. Blazier looked down at the hole again and growled.

"I still need to beat up that Knight," he said as he scooted pass the hole and ran past. Maxxor shook his head at the reckless scout and jumped down the hole to reveal a new tunnel. Hearing splashes farther down the new tunnel, he raced to the noise. When he came upon the struggle, his fury reached a point in which no words could describe it.

The older human had a knife in his hand and was trying to slash the little human with it. The little human, who had to be Tom because of his size, kept away from the knife. That had to be a fleet unto itself because the water where they were fighting was up to poor Tom's chest. Maxxor growled and charged the same time the older human grabbed the back of Tom's neck and shoved him underwater.

Maxxor slammed into the human holding Tom, causing him to topple over but not let go of the poor boy's neck. The human tried to stab the Overworld leader, but he was too quick and slammed into the human again, one hand wrapping around the throat while the other grabbed the knife hand. Squeezing the throat, Maxxor caused the human to let go of Tom's neck so that the human could try to get his throat free.

Maxxor heard Tom's coughing and sputtering as he tried to get air back into his body. Growling, he brought the human's face closer to his own.

"You've just earned my wrath," he snarled. "You shouldn't have done that."

He threw the human over to dry land and rushed over to the still sputtering Tom. Grabbing him around the waist, Maxxor lifted him up and carried him out of the water. Gently placing Tom on his knees with the arm still around his waist, he began to rub the boy's back gently, hoping that would help get the extra water out of his stomach. He felt Tom cough a few more times before the water came out through the little one's mouth.

"There, there, little one. It's over, it's over," Maxxor whispered gently to the poor child, who was still trembling. Lifting him up in arms so that Tom's head faced his chest, he carried the terrified little one over to a tunnel wall. Turning his back towards the wall, Maxxor slid down until he was seated comfortably with the little human still in his arms.

Breathing out a sigh, he looked down at big blue eyes and a trembling lip. Moving the black mop of wet hair away from the eyes, Maxxor gently pressed his forehead against Tom's own.

"Got a bit of a scare, didn't you?" he asked gently. A small nod and a sniffle confirmed his question and the little head moved toward his shoulder. Maxxor felt him shudder as he began to sob. _**Poor little one; he's had a rough day**_, Maxxor thought as he allowed his shoulder to be sobbed on and rubbed Tom's back in hopes to sooth him. It seemed to work as the sobs diminished and sniffles replaced them after a few minutes. The little head reappeared from his shoulder to gaze up at him.

"Better?" Maxxor asked. Again the little head nodded. Settling himself against the wall, Maxxor watched in amusement as little hands grabbed his own and inspect how large it was.

"Is your name Tom?" he asked, not wanting to take the wrong human to the leader. The little head shot up at his question.

"How did you know?" Tom asked, eyes shining in wonder. Maxxor chuckled at his wide eyed expression.

"Well, your leader asked to come with me while I searched for Blazier…" he began.

"Blazier! Is he all right? Is he safe?!" Tom interrupted.

"He's fine. I ordered him back to the cavern, but he still wants to fight that Knight that had you," Maxxor said, looking over to the Knight. He hadn't move at all, and blood trickled from where his chest was.

"I don't think he'll be fighting the Knight," Tom said, also looking at the Knight.

"No, he won't. Anyways," Maxxor continued, "your leader doesn't know the tunnel system, but he still wanted to come. I told him that I would find you for him. He was about to protest when a large mount mixed with the Underworlders caused him to agree."

"Bucky!!" Tom giggled. Maxxor smiled at him. _**Intress will love him,**_ he thought. Reminded of his people, Maxxor picked himself up and moved to the hole in the tunnel roof, Tom still in his arms. On the way, he grabbed the fallen Knight.

"Come on, let's get out of here before we get in trouble," he said. Tom pouted and clung to his neck, muttering, "I'm already in trouble."

Maxxor quirked an eyebrow. "Oh? What did you do?"

"Disobeyed orders," came the soft reply. Maxxor sighed and shook his head, looking up at the hole. Jumping up and landing just beyond the edge, he continued to walk.

"If you disobeyed orders during battle, whether for good or bad reasons, your team mates could be injured, captured, or worse. That's why you shouldn't disobey orders," he explained while he walked on.

"Oh," came the reply. They continued in silence through several more tunnels, Tom tracing Maxxor's markings. Then…

"You haven't told me yet."

"Hmm?" Maxxor looked down to see Tom's accusing glare. "I haven't told you what yet?"

"Your name! You know mine but I don't know yours. It's only polite," Tom explained. Maxxor smiled.

"It's Maxxor," he just said before exiting the tunnel and entering the cavern. Looking around, he was pleased to see that everything looked almost back to normal.

The prisoners were tied together and on their own mounts. Their mounts were tied together as well and held in the hands of the oldest humans. Blazier had his hat again and H'earring was trying to be under everyone's feet. Intress and Takinom watched over the three little humans, who were on top of the huge mount that caused the Underworlders to panic. Maxxor was surprised that the older humans would allowed their young to ride that big of a beast. The big black beast was near the little ones, being scratched by Najarin. Chaor and other Creatures were helping the older humans with gathering bags that the prisoners had. Nivenna had a mount following her, like her sister, but this mount was yellow with cream colors mixed in.

"Thomas!" Maxxor whipped head around to see the leader coming straight for them, crossing the river as he did.

"Joseph!" Tom cried in delight, arms reaching out to the leader. "Joseph" dismounted once he was close and Tom scrambled to be out of Maxxor's hold. Maxxor put him down and the two humans embraced. Quick talking between the two occurred, and Tom was released from Joseph's hold and running toward the other little ones. Standing tall, Joseph looked at Maxxor and nodded his head.

"Thank you," he simply said, gratitude shining in his dark eyes. Maxxor nodded his head back at Joseph and headed back to the river, dead Knight still in hand. Joseph and his mount followed, crossing the river with him. When Maxxor threw the Knight with the others that were dead, he began to dig through the Knight's pockets, taking items and leaving the rest. This process did not pass Maxxor.

"What are you doing?" he growled. Did the human just used him?

"This man no longer needs the supplies he has on him. _We_ do, especially them," Joseph explained, nodding his head toward the little humans. Maxxor looked at the youngest, who were talking to Takinom and Intress. Intress was laughing with Tom, who had clambered on while he and Joseph were walking. Maxxor sighed and turned back to see Joseph mounting up.

"Thank you again for finding Tom," he said and nudged his mount forward. The rest of the humans mounted up and followed. Stopping in front of the main entrance, Joseph turned toward his group of humans.

"Rabbits, move out!" he ordered, turning back to the entrance and moving forward. Quickly, the rest followed his lead and moved forward, the little ones with the female controlling the mount following as well.

Maxxor moved forward without even realizing it. Only a touch on his arm prevented him from doing anything too rash. Looking down, he saw that Intress stopped him and was now rubbing her head against his shoulder. Wrapping his arms around her, Maxxor gave his mate a hug. However, the moment was interrupted with a young male voice echoing throughout the cavern.

"Okay, who feels up to drowning in the rain?"

_**A/N: What do you think? Love it, hate it? Read and review!**_


	6. Chapter 5

_**A/N: Sorry about the long delay. Life and school and all that. Anyways, onward!**_

Gatekeepers Ch. 5

Sarah looked outside the opening of the cave with Bucky's reins in her tiny hands. She then looked at Joseph and Jonathan like everyone else. Well, not everyone; Tom, who was wrapped up in a blanket, and Kaz were looking back at the cavern. Joseph looked over at Seth with an arched eyebrow.

"Oh? We've ridden in rain before and haven't drowned yet. Give me a good reason why we _won't_ continue, Seth, and please, no impersonations," he patiently asked.

"Aww, c'mon! _Please_, even just a simple Orlando Bloom?" Seth pouted.

"No." was his answer. Seth sighed comically.

"Well, there's the fact that we can barely see out there, we have prisoners that can possibly escape during this, and…" he was interrupted by lightning and thunder and then hail began to fall. "I don't think that anybody, be human or beast, would like to be beaned in head."

Val, his golden retriever, barked in agreement after his reasons were given. Jethro, Alana's German shepherd, growled and bared his teeth at her. Sarah giggled at Seth's explanation while Joseph ignored the two dogs in favor of looking at Tom and Kaz.

"Tom," he called out. Sarah was pretty sure that Tom and Kaz got cricks in their necks from how fast they turned around.

"Yes, sir?" Tom replied, rubbing his neck.

"Can you give me a good reason why we shouldn't and won't be riding out in this weather?" Joseph repeated patiently. Tom's face screwed up in a thoughtful expression and he looked around him.

"Well, we would have come back anyways half way to our next stop," he began.

"He's going to need a better explanation that, youngling," Jonathan said with a small laugh while ruffling Tom's wet hair.

"Jonathan's right. Why would we have to come back?" Joseph agreed.

"'Cause we don't have the Knight's bags. We didn't grab them on our way out. If we don't have extra bags, then there's gonna be no extra supplies," Tom elaborated on his point. Joseph nodded his head while Grandmother, Grandpa, and Owen looked around to see that he was right. In their hurry to leave, they forgot the bags.

"Shinko? Adam? What do you say?" Jonathan, as second in command, turned the discussion over to Seth's twin. Adam frowned and tapped his fingers against Rebel, his black gelding.

"I'd say that Tom's right. We forgot the bags. No extra bags, no extra supplies. We don't know what they even have," he said finally. Shinko nodded her agreement.

"Seth's right as well. This weather is perfect for escape attempts, even when most of them are drunk and especially if we're heading toward the Snowies," Shinko added, naming another group that they were to meet up with the next day. Sarah noticed that the Knights began to tremble. She didn't blame them; the Snowies had a reputation of having at least four judges and all of them are not merciful to Black Knights, including some instances of maim.

"Well said. You passed," Joseph said, turning Zadar around from the entrance and heading back to the cavern. Kaz made a face and stuck out his tongue; nobody liked Joseph's pop command quizzes.

"Now Joseph, tell us the _true_ reason why we're going back," Alana teasingly said, turning Hazy, her sorrel mare, around and following Zadar.

"Easy. I don't want to lose the little ones again. Another heart attack is not going to be in my future," he replied. Everyone laughed at that. Sarah pulled on Bucky's reins to turn him around with the others. Seth and Owen on Magpie and Dirtboss raced ahead of the others to do who-knows-what. Sarah shook her head at their silliness.

When the whole group entered the cavern, Sarah noticed that many of the Creatures were either confused or sad, judging by their faces. After hearing them come in, however, several of them gained wicked grins and relief smoothed the lines on their faces.

"Back so soon?" the bat woman that talked to Kaz earlier, Takinom, said with small smirk. The large red gargoyle man next to her chuckled in amusement at her statement. Sarah noticed that Adam and Seth shared their "we're up to no good" look. _**This will not end well,**_ she thought.

"Well, the Rabbits are the best, so we thought that we'd stay back and see how Creatures train," Adam said, stretching and trying to show his muscles. Seth did the same and soon the two were doing different poses that suggested masculinity. Sarah felt Peyton trying to stifle his giggles at their movements. She just rolled her eyes.

"Really? Are you sure that's not because you, oh, forgot something?" the gargoyle man asked, holding up a plain saddlebag. Several others, including Takinom, the cat woman who talked to Peyton, Intress, and the Creature who saved Tom, held up their own saddlebags. Joseph, Jonathan, Alana, and Shinko laughed at Seth and Adam's fallen faces. Owen grinned while the four little Gatekeepers laughed as well as Grandmother and Grandpa shook their heads.

"Nutter butters! They figured us out!" Seth cried overdramatically, using one of the curses he and his twin created to swear and not be in trouble. They were told off the first time they swore with the little ones in hearing range, so they created their own swear words to curse with.

"Maybe it's because you're predictable," a red lizard man said in amusement. He was standing next to Tiaane, who Sarah was delighted to see, and wore a purple cloak with spikes coming out of his spine.

"Enough, Adam," Joseph said before things got out of hand. Adam, who was about to do a snappy comeback, shut his mouth with a pout. Turning back to the Creatures, Joseph dropped Zadar's reins and spread his hands out in a sign of good will, palms facing them.

"We wish to stay here for the night," he began. "Perhaps we can have a little truce?"

Sarah held her breath, praying that the Creatures would say yes.

Intress couldn't believe her ears. Looking around her, she noticed that the others were as shocked as she was. _**Did he really just ask what I think he asked? Or is this going to be a trick to let our guard down?**_ she thought wryly while watching Maxxor and the other leaders for directions. The younglings asking of a truce was one thing, but the adults? That was another bowl of soup all together. One human, a female with dark wood skin and blue eyes and carrying a stringed bow, quickly twisted on her mount and notched an arrow, pointing it at a prisoner who was leaning off of a mount. Intress instinctively tensed when she twisted but was shocked when the warrior pointed her arrow at the prisoner.

"Naa-ahh-ahhh," she said while shaking her head. The prisoner eased himself back into place. Glancing at Maxxor, Intress saw that his mind was made up. And from the way the other tribal leaders were looking, they agreed.

"Very well," Maxxor said, nodding. "Do you wish to speak to us in private?"

"In public, please. Some of my people do not know how to keep their mouths shut," the human said, frowning at the identical humans who were making fools of themselves. One held his palms up and innocently said, "What?"

His mount stood up on its hind legs, dumping him to the ground. An "oof!" later and the mount set all four legs on the ground, trotting off to the river. Aivenna and Nivenna were there, and the mounts that stayed behind were being petted almost absent mindedly. Intress suspected that the humans left the two beasts on purpose.

"Magpie! Get back here!" the human shouted, scrambling to catch his own beast. Most of the Creatures laughed at his antics while the other older humans shook their heads while getting off of their own beasts. Intress noted that the oldest humans still held the leads of the prisoners in their boney hands while Odu Bathax ordered several Mandiblors to help get the prisoners to a separate cave with no way out. Najarin was once again petting the black beast from before after getting pounced on.

"Excuse me."

Intress whipped around at the little voice and came to face to muzzle of a mount. Its riders, the little ones that Takinom and she talked to, looked at her with hopeful eyes.

"Can you hold Bucky's head, please? He's been overprotective since we got on," the little female, Sarah, if Intress recalled from their talk from earlier, asked. Intress was shocked at first at the request, but recovered quickly. Allowing the beast to sniff her hand to get use to her scent, she grabbed the bridle on the beast, petting the white stripe on his face. The beast lipped her arm gently while the little ones, what looked to be with the ease of practice, slid off of his back.

It took a good three seconds for Intress to realize that the mount was now trying to get away from her and to the little ones. The human that Maxxor saved, Tom, trotted to Intress and Bucky, hugging her leg before unlatching the bridle and sliding it off. Bucky spat out a piece of metal, and Tom looped the reins and bridle over his shoulder only to be knocked onto his butt by Bucky. A final snort and the giant mount trotted over to the river to drink with the other mounts that were free of bags and bridles.

"Why did he do that?" Takinom asked Tom as Intress helped him get back onto his feet. The other humans had saddlebags as well, looking much like their own gear for the Skeletal Steeds. The other little ones giggled while Tom grinned and said, "I scared him this morning. He couldn't find me so…yeah."

He gave a shrug, grinning ruefully. Grabbing his own bags, Tom trotted over to his friends, who went over to a cavern wall to place their bags along with the other humans. Intress stood in the same spot, arms crossed, watching Tom laugh and joke with his friends, a thoughtful expression on her face.

"How long before everyone claims this group of humans as their own?" she murmured gently to Takinom.

"Are you talking about the little ones or the whole group?" Takinom murmured back, looking beyond the four little ones to see Tiaane, Blazier, Laarina, and H'earring bounding to the little ones with Sobtjek, Wamma, and Ulmar following behind. Other Creatures were investigating the other humans, including Oqua and the little human who stole the enemy's weapons. By the looks of it, they were arguing with one another.

"Entire group now," Intress said. Takinom chuckled.

"Couple of hours, tops."

Intress nodded and smiled as Tom hugged Blazier tightly, the red head Kaz grabbing H'earring while the brown haired boy, Peyton, practically attacked Tiaane and Sarah investigated Wamma.

"Hold it!"

Intress whipped her head to the source to see the oldest female human striding over with quick, brisk steps with a small scowl on her face.

"Uh-oh," Intress heard the brown haired boy mutter.

Tom was torn between hiding from Grandmother's wrath or watching the drama of who was going to face it. Until he noticed that Adam had stalked over and was currently trying to hide behind one of the bigger Creatures, Sobjtek he recalled over introductions. Now his head was popped up, looking around until he spotted Grandmother coming straight for him. Immediately his face paled and tried to go to a different hiding spot.

Too late. Grandmother grabbed the back of his shirt and pulled him to a rock. Poor Sobjtek was caught in the middle and had to quickly move over to Sarah and Wamma.

"Absolutely not! You are in trouble now, young man!" Grandmother snarled.

"Grandmother, I'm fine! Look at me, I'm fine! No special treatment, see?" Adam said with a small laugh.

"Oh, really? You're fine, my foot! You've been injured and you didn't tell me! Fine? You better beg for mercy now because you won't get it later when the stitches are being put in!"

Adam started at that. "Okay, first, where is this so-called 'injury'?"

A swift flick in between the shoulder blades produced a small yelp and revealing the long gash of blood there. Tom was surprised that Adam didn't feel the pain until Grandmother flicked the area. He figured by now that everyone was staring at them, including the leaders. Looking around at the Creatures, his suspicions were confirmed when Tom saw the confused faces while the rest of the Rabbits grinned in amusement, Shinko and Joseph especially trying to keep their laughter back.

"And secondly," Adam started, and then began to struggle with earnest, "Let me go, let me go, _let me go!"_

"Absolutely not! You're getting the stitches, and YOU!" Grandmother rounded on Tiaane, who looked shocked at the outburst of the oldest woman. "You sit down as well!"

Tom saw that none of the leaders, including Maxxor, were intervening into the scene before them. He guessed that they were too shocked at the change in Grandmother was displaying to do anything. He heard snickering behind him as Tiaane meekly followed Grandmother's orders. Quickly, he dragged Blazier behind a rock while the others found their own hiding places. Wamma thought that hiding with Sarah was the best idea of all and the two could barely fit in the little cubbyhole in the cavern wall. Kaz had H'earring and Ulmar behind Takinom while Peyton ducked down behind rocks as well. _**Wait, where's Sobjtek? **_Tom wondered as he continued to peek out behind his rock.

A crackling sound and a shimmer of light was Tom's answer as Sobjtek appeared near Tiaane. At his comrade's confused look, he shrugged and said, "I might as well get this strange post battle check up over with."

"Yeah, you heard him! Get it over with, Seth!" the captive Adam shouted at his twin. Seth shook his head and began to back away to the giant blue dragon Creature.

"No thanks. I'd rather nurse whatever wounds I have in private," he said.

"_**Seth Isaac Tiller!**_ You get over here right this instant and let Shinko look at that graze!" Grandmother thundered.

"Yeah, get over there and get looked at!" the dragon Creature crowed with a laugh before hiding behind the waterfall wall. Shinko was already over by Grandmother and a minotaur was her unwilling aid, from the look on his face.

Tom didn't see Intress sneak up behind him until she picked him up and carried him over to the rest of the "patients." Tom looked up at her and pouted.

"Cheater," he muttered. She chuckled.

"Relax. I'm doing this 'check-up' as well."

Tom continued to pout as Sarah dragged Wamma out from their hiding place and Kaz was caught by Takinom to get his own check-up with H'earring. Sobjtek caught Peyton as soon as his check up was done and held him against his chest.

Looking around again, Tom looked around again to see that Joseph and the leaders, including Maxxor, were now talking at a table. Owen was talking to the lion man from earlier while waiting for his check up and Jonathan was trying to drag Seth over to for his check up. Several other Creatures were helping Jon unlatch Seth from a rock outcropping and the dragon was snapping at Seth's hands.

"I can take care of myself and my wounds as well, now _let go!"_ Seth said in a panic, trying to keep himself from Shinko and her assistant.

Tom giggled and looked over to see how Grandmother was faring with Adam. He just about laughed to see Adam under Tiaane and a male ram-like Creature. She herself was stitching the wound closed, ignoring the whining coming from Adam.

"You're being a big baby, now quit squirming!" she scolded the teenager. Tom could see that Adam was unhappy to be wounded in a spot so that others had to close him up. Intress chuckled at the scene.

"Arias, how did you get caught up with holding that boy down?" she teasingly called out. The ram Creature looked up from his place on Adam's legs and snorted.

"I'm not completely sure, myself," he called back. Intress laughed and Tom giggled helplessly as well. Grandmother finished up the stitching and quickly Arias and Tiaane jumped of the pissed off teenager. Quickly Adam went into sulk mood and grabbed one of the Knights' saddlebags. Scowling, he went to Rebel, sat down on a rock, and opened the bag to begin sorting the items.

"All right, who's next?" Grandmother called, Grandpa already on a cringing Wamma with Sarah looking on in amusement. Nobody immediately hopped up, but after a few seconds of silence Intress sighed and stood up, Tom still in her arms.

"Looks like we're next," she said heading over to the old woman.

"Yep, we're-'WE?'" Tom started, looking up at Intress. "Where's this 'we' comin' from?"

"Easy, there is 'you' and 'me', so that makes 'we'." Intress teasingly told him. Tom pouted.

"All right, you two. Get over here, and you," Grandmother whipped around to point at Arias, "get in line for your own check-up."

Arias looked shocked for a moment before obeying while keeping a close eye on the irate old woman. Several of his friends started to snicker at the sight of Arias being cowed by an elderly human, but they were cut off by the deadly look in Grandmother's eyes, promising pain for them next.

Soon enough, everyone, except Seth clinging to his rock, was healed and chatting, Creature to human. Seth and his gecko fingers weren't giving up easily, and almost everyone had tried their hand at making him let go. Intress had let Tom go long after their check-up had finished and he raced over to Seth, who had by now wrapped both legs with his arms around his "sticky rock". Sarah, Kaz, and Peyton had joined him as Seth glared.

"What do you want?" he snarled tiredly. Tom stayed in front of him while the others went behind him, very close to his back. Tom flashed a quick smile before joining his fellow Gatekeepers.

"Nothing. We were just wondering about something," Tom replied. Seth snorted.

"Oh, yeah. You're 'wondering' about something. And what thing is that?" he snarled, suspicious of their sudden enthusiasm.

"If you're ticklish or not." Seth only had two seconds to look completely and utterly confused before Sarah poked his side. An undignified squeak, barely even audible, immerged from his lips and a horrified expression replaced the confusion.

"Absolutely not!" he cried as Kaz and Peyton grabbed his feet and began to pull them off of the rock. "No, no, no, no, get off, _get off, GET OFF!_"

Tom and Sarah continued to tickle Seth's sides as Peyton and Kaz continued to tug on Seth's feet. Seth continued to scream and laugh as slowly, ever so slowly, his fingers began to lose their grip. Everyone turned to look at the screaming teenager as the giggling children continued to "torture" him.

_POP!_

A loud crash sounded throughout the cavern, signaling that Seth had lost his grip.

_**A/N part 2: Will Seth get his check-up? What happened with the kids? Find out next time!**_


End file.
